The Sleuth's Progress
Dec 19 '99
This may be the knottiest mystery of all: the best series ever. I have said elsewhere that the real quality of a mystery series, what makes it live and be reread, is that we return to the books in it we have read a score of times and more, not because the puzzle is new, but because we wish again to spend time with the Great Detective, his sidekick, Boswell, or Watson, and the ensemble cast. It is by that standard I must judge this question, in conjunction with its corollary: that the best of the lot do show the growth and development of these beloved characters, our friends of long standing.
I will take the writer's privilege of peremptorily disallowing from consideration any series that is not yet concluded. Given the current state of the sleuthing art, this is not too tough to do: most of the contemporary series are pretty bad. But this does mean that I have arbitrarily dismissed a series that is fast drawing to a close and that may in the end challenge for the top spot: Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse series. It also knocks out distant contender Ruth Rendell, possible shot Gerald Hammond, and high-odds candidates P. D. James, Lindsey Davis, and John Mortimer (Wexford, Calder, Dalgleish, Marcus Didius Falco, and Rumpole, respectively). So be it. Judge no day til it's done and no race til it's run (and that also includes Dick Francis, who has dabbled in repeat appearances for Sid Halley and for Kit Fielding.)
It should be obvious, to any one who has read any of my mystery reviews, that I take as given that a mystery should follow the rules of fair play for the reader, be tightly plotted, and be written in the best possible literary English. It will therefore come as no surprise that the candidates are primarily Golden Age. Who, then, are they? There is of course Holmes. Yet Holmes does not deepen appreciably over the course of the series, dearly as I love Baker Street and its denizens. This may be the fault of the short story form, as the majority of Conan Doyle's works were shorts. The same defect, though to a far lesser extent, affects Fr Brown and Chesterton, although the final Fr Brown story sounds a major chord of resolution. Yet the little cleric is essentially ageless. (And mind you, I am an absolute Fr Brown fanatic.) Similarly, deeply as I revere Professor Fen and his chronicler, Crispin, the vicissitudes of mortality do not affect the don-detective. The aging and development of the characters is much better handled by the superb Margery Allingham, whose Campion grows and deepens progressively. She gets a high rating, for that as for all her virtues. With Innes's Appleby, the incidents are there (and the books are a joy), but the progress from DC Appleby to Sir John is a little too effortless. It is handled quite well, by contrast, by Ngaio Marsh; Alleyn was an acquired taste for me, but my palate now is avid for the series. Perhaps surprisingly, Christie does well by Miss Jane Marple, whose timeless England of St Mary Mead is not as timeless as it seems (_At Bertram's Hotel_ and _Nemesis_ come to mind).
But it really comes down to two gentlemen who admire a fine book, who age gracefully but with all the toils and trials of this mortal life, and who come at last into safe harbor, greatly matured but as powerfully incisive as ever. One was a magistrate in a far country long ago; the other, a sprig of the English nobility, who fought in the Great War and served with distinction in Military Intelligence in the Second World War. They are two among my four favorite detectives, tied in a dead heat for first with Sherlock and with Fr Brown; and the series, as series, are stronger. Between the two I cannot finally decide, so I will declare it a photo-finish and leave it to you to act as stewards and make up your own minds. They are of course Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey, chronicled by Dorothy L. Sayers, and that greatest of jurists in the history of Imperial China, Dee Jen-djieh, 'Judge Dee', whose cases are recorded by Robert van Gulik. You should make the acquaintance of both these noble and courteous gentlemen today.
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mshawpyle
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Member: Markham Shaw Pyle, JD
Location: Houston, Texas
Reviews written: 539
Trusted by: 394 members
About Me:
Historian, baseballing bon vivant, Boll Weevil, W&L man; and the Walter Mitty of field sports
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